Les actifs sous gestion de la société de gestion de fortune britannique St James’s Place s’inscrivaient fin juin à 39,9 milliards de livres, en hausse de 29 % depuis le début de l’année, a indiqué la société le 31 juillet dans son rapport intérimaire. La collecte nette s’est élevée au premier semestre à 1,99 milliard de livres contre 1,51 milliard à la même période de l’année précédente.Le nombre de conseillers a bondi de 6,5 % au cours du semestre, et de 12 % sur un an.

Bien que Friends Life ait retiré 6 milliards de livres d’encours obligataires à fin juin, les actifs des «partenaires stratégiques"gérés par F&C Asset Management n’ont diminué que de 4,77 milliards de livres durant la premier semestre, à 53,71 milliards de livres. D’autre part, les encours «consommateurs et institutionnels» se sont accrus en six mois de 1,85 milliard de livres, à 38,6 milliards. Cela s’explique sur ce dernier point par des souscriptions nettes de 432 millions de livres, un effet performance positif de 360 millions et un effet de change positif également de 1,06 milliard de livres.Au total, les actifs gérés par F&C ont représenté fin juin 92,31 milliards de livres contre 95,22 milliards six mois auparavant.Richard Wilson, CEO, a souligné que F&C respecte parfaitement son plan de marche qui va lui permettre d'économiser 48,8 millions de livres d’ici à 2015.Le bénéfice avant impôt du groupe pour le premier semestre s’est accru à 37,3 millions de livres contre 51,9 millions pour juillet-décembre 2012 et 22,1 millions pour la période correspondante de l’an dernier.

Monceau Assurances est en train de transférer ses fonds gérés jusqu'à présent par La Française AM pour les confier à de nouvelles sociétés de gestion. Ainsi, « Monceau Ethique » est désormais géré par la Financière Responsable, « Monceau Trésorerie », et « Monceau Sélection Internationale » par Financière de la Cité. Les derniers à avoir été transférés sont le fonds « Monceau Sélection France Europe » (200 millions d’euros d’encours) chez Métropole Gestion et le fonds « Monceau Convertibles » (70 millions d’euros d’encours) chez Financière de la Cité. Instit Invest avait fait part, dès le 22 avril dernier, de la dégradation des relation entre la mutuelle et le gérant (cf. rubrique Gouvernance, Article Une journée chez Monceau Assurances). A l'époque, Gilles Dupin nous avait déclaré : « Nous travaillons avec La Française AM mais nous n’en sommes plus actionnaires. Pour l’instant, nous continuons à leur confier la gestion de fonds actions mais nous trouvons que la société a perdu un peu son esprit entrepreneurial depuis son rapprochement avec le groupe UFG ».

Le nombre de demandeurs d’emploi dans la zone euro a baissé en juin pour la première fois depuis plus de deux ans. Selon Eurostat, le nombre de chômeurs inscrits s’est établi à 19,266 millions le mois dernier, en baisse de 24.000 par rapport à mai. Cette très modeste baisse n’a pas empêché le taux de chômage de s’inscrire au niveau record de 12,1% pour le quatrième mois consécutif.

L'économie belge a enregistré une croissance de 0,1% au deuxième trimestre par rapport au premier, selon les premières estimations de la banque centrale du pays. Sur un an, le produit intérieur brut a reculé de 0,1%. La Belgique est le premier pays du cœur de la zone euro à publier des indications sur son activité du deuxième trimestre.

Héritière de SGAM, Société Générale Gestion (S2G) a été condamnée par la commission des sanctions de l’AMF à une sanction de 280.000 euros pour avoir «méconnu des règles aussi importantes que celles relatives à la gestion des conflits d’intérêts, à la valorisation des actifs sous gestion et à l’information des porteurs». Le dossier, qui remonte à 2010, concerne des CDO logés dans un FCP.

Le président Barack Obama a décidé de nommer la gouverneure de la Fed Sarah Bloom Raskin au poste de sous-secrétaire d’Etat au Trésor. Si cette décision est confirmée par le Sénat, elle deviendra la première femme à obtenir un poste aussi élevé au sein du Trésor américain.

A.R. Schmeidler & Co et Goelzer Investment Management vont devoir s’acquitter d’une pénalité de 1,5 million de dollars faute d’avoir appliqué les règles de meilleure exécution au profit de leurs clients. Goelzer indique avoir mis en place un poste à plein temps de responsable indépendant de la conformité.

Une diminution des achats obligataires à compter de septembre reste une option

Une diminution des achats obligataires à compter de septembre reste une option

Après des sorties record au deuxième trimestre, BNPP IP vise 40 milliards d'euros de collecte nette sur des créneaux porteurs, d'ici à 2016

La banque a annoncé hier un plan d’action pour renouer avec la collecte de la gestion d’actifs, après des retraits records de 19 milliards d’euros au deuxième trimestre. Ses encours sont aussi à leur plus bas niveau depuis l’acquisition de Fortis en 2009.

Le Fonds chiffre à 11 milliards d'euros le déficit de financement pour 2014 et 2015. Il pourrait s'aggraver en cas de dégradation de l'économie

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to Agefi, the chairwoman of the SEC, Mary Jo White, has told the Senate banking committee that the regulator is considering the question of whether banks should be allowed to hold assets such as shares in oil companies or metal warehouses when they are involved in commodities brokerage. Some information disclosure may be required.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The US asset management firm Exchange Traded Concepts (ETC), which helps other asset management firms to put their ETFs on the market, has submitted an application to the SEC for a license for the Hull Tactical US ETF, which will be a “tactical” ETF with long and short positions on leveraged and inverse ETFs based on the S&P 500 index.According to IndexUniverse, the fund will be up to 200% long and 100% short. So far, no ticker or TER rate have been announced.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The private equity investor Fortress Investment Group has announced that it has closed a round of fundraising for its fund Fortress MSR Opportunities Fund II, which succeeds the first product of its type, closed in August 2012 with USD608m of commitments, with its planned total of USD1.1bn.The MSR Opportunities fund from Fortress are focused on investments in residential mortgage servicing rights. MSR are the monthly fees paid in exchange for servicing on mortgage debts, minus a basic service commission.Fortress IG as of the end of March had assets under management of USD56bn, for about 1,500 institutional and retail clients.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } According to Fitch, the 10 largest US money market funds have allocated about 15% of their assets of USD652bn to short-term deposits and securities issued by euro zone banks, the Financial Times reports. That represents an increase of about 90% compared with June 2012, when fears of a breakup of the euro zone were at their height.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The Australian asset management firm AMP Capital is building its presence in bond management in Asia. A specialist asset management team has been created, and for the first time, it is based not in Sydney but in Hong Kong, Asian Investor reports. Sonia Baillie, head of credit research, will move to Hong Kong in September, where she will join Nam Nguyen. They will together oversee all Asian bond activities and fixed income strategies.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } After obtaining an ETF sales license in Hong Kong in June, Direxion has recently added to its sales team, Asian Investor reports. Grace Chiu has joined the team from Horizon Securities, where she had been a member of the institutional sales team in Hong Kong. Chiu speaks Cantonese and Mandarin.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Rustam Mursalimov on 19 July became an equity manager at Gazprombank Asset Management, where he also becomes a director, Citywire reports. Mursalimov had previously been an equity manager at the German firm Deka, where he had been head of investment in Russia, Turkey and Eastern Europe in the Emerging Europe team.Gazprombank AM, an asset management affiliate of the Russian firm Gazprombank, belonging to the gas giant Gazprom, has since March been led by Aylin Suntay, who joined the firm in September 2012 from Pictet AM, where he had been deputy CIO for equities.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Despite an increase in operating revenues to GBP931m from GBP926m in July-December 2012 and GBP894m in the corresponding period of last year, pre-tax profits for the wealth & investment management unit at Barclays in first half 2013 fell to GBP47m from GBP175m in second half 2012, and GBP99m in January-June last year. In second quarter, the unit saw a loss of GBP13m, largely due to the Transform redeployment programme, redemptions to clients, and asset depreciations.The increase in operating revenues for first half is due to high net worth clients, with strong growth in the Americas and Asia in particular.Net commission revenues increased in January-June to GP485m, compared with GBP480m in second half 2012, and GBP486m in the corresponding period of last year. Adjusted net profits for first half were up to GBP3.59bn, compared with GBP4.34bn in the corresponding period of 2012, largely due to GBP640m in charges related to the Transform program launched in February.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Mattioli Woods has acquired all capital in Thoroughbred Wealth Management Limited and its affiliate Atkinson Bolton Consulting Limited, a wealth management firm. According to a statement, the total acquisition price is GBP5.99m. The management team at Atkinson Bolton will be integrated into Mattioli Woods.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } The French asset management firm Carmignac has signed an agreement with Fidelity to allow its funds to be listed on the British platform of the latter, FundsNetwork.The Carmignac range available to investors and advisers in the United Kingdom includes 10 funds with asset classes denominated in pounds sterling. All share classes in pounds are hedged for currency risks against the euro.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } Josef Schopf, who has been in his position at Lupus alpha for 10 years, will on 1 September join the asset management boutique Fidecum as a member of the portfolio management team; he will also be a member of the managing board, Das Investment reports.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } For January-June 2013, Union Bancaire Privée (UBP) on 30 July declared consolidated net profits of CHF77.2m (EUR62.7m), compared with CHF70m in the corresponding period of last year.As of 30 June, assets under management totalled CHF81.1bn, or EUR66bn, compared with CHF80bn as of 31 December, which reflects net subscriptions and does not take into account sums corresponding to the acquisition of the international private banking activities of Lloyds Banking Group, announced at the end of May, as this transaction will not be completed until 31 October 2013.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } HSBC Private Bank (Switzerland) has appointed Xavier Clavel as director of the Alternative Investment Group Switzerland, Finews repors. He had previously worked at GAM, where he had been head of private client. Clavel joined his new employer at the beginning of July. The Alternative Investment Group has 90 advisers, advising clients who invest in hedge funds, private equity and real estate.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } For the quarter to the end of June, operating margin at Franklin Templeton increased to 37% compared with 36.2% in January-March, and 36.1% in the corresponding period of last year. However, net profits fell to USD522.3m, compared with USD572.8m for first quarter 2013, while up 12% compared with April-June 2012 (USD455.3m).As announced (Newsmanagers of 15 July), assets as of 30 June totalled USD815bn, down 1% compared with USD823.7bn as of the end of March, but up by 15% compared with the level achieved twelve months previously.Franklin Templeton states that the decline in assets of USD8.7bn observed in April-June are largely due to a negative market effect of USD16.3bn, which could not be offset by net subscriptions of USD8.4bn. The increase of USD107.9bn compared with 30 June 2012 is due both to USD73.8bn in market appreciation and USD29.9bn in net subscriptions.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } As of 30 June, AUM in the asset management operation at BNP Paribas totalled EUR375bn, compared with EUR404bn three months earlier (7.2%) and EUR412bn (-9%) one year previously, while wealth management assets totalled EUR272bn, compared with EUR277bn as of the end of March, though they were higher than the EUR257bn as of the end of June 2012. In total, the investment solutions unit (which also includes real estate, insurance and the personal investors division) posted assets under management of EUR869bn, compared with EUR906bn as of the end of first quarter and EUR873bn one year previously.In second quarter, the investment solutions unit underwent net outflows of EUR16.4bn, compared with EUR3.1bn for first quarter and EUR4.1bn in the corresponding period of last year, while asset management had outflows of EUR19bn, after EUR7bn in January-March, and EUR9.7bn in April-June 2012. Wealth management, however, has net inflows fo EUR2.8bn in April-June 2013, EUR6.3bn in January-March 2013, and EUR4.5bn for second quarter 2012.Pre-tax profits from institutional and retail asset management in second quarter totalled EUR188m, compared with EUR197m n January-March, and in first half it totalled EUR385m, the same level as in January-June 2012.The group, which considers asset management a strategic profession, has announced plans to increase revenues from this highly profitable unit by 10% by 2016, and to increase assets under management. BNP Paribas is planning to restart inflows with an objective of EUR40bn of inflows by 2016 to high added value segments, largely from institutional clients in Asia Pacific, and for emerging markets. The group will make targeted investments to achieve that, particularly in the institutional segment.Net distributable income for the group total EUR3.347bn in first half 2013, down 29.1% compared with the corresponding period of the previous year, when it registered the sale of a stake in Klépierre S.A.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } An analyst specialised in tech sector stocks accused of leaking information concerning a potential partnership between Yahoo and Microsoft to the benefit of hedge fund manager SAC Capital has been arrested by the FBI and indicted in California, Agefi reports.

P { margin-bottom: 0.08in; } “As GCS Capital was not able to satisfy its obligations with respect to contractual payments in time for the closing date initially set for 28 June 2013, Dexia has no option, as announced on 24 June 2013, but to put a final end to talks with GCS Capital, and to announce the formal termination of the share sale agreement (for shares in Dexia Asset Management) with GCS Capital, effective from 30 July, 2013,” a statement released by Dexia on 30 July states.The French-Belgian group points out that for its part, it had fulfilled all the necessary conditions for the transaction since its announcement on 12 December 2012, and that it had obtained all regulatory clearance and permission from third parties required. It adds that all preconditions for the sale had been satisfied on its side within the agreed deadlines.However, Dexia states that it is still planning to complete the sale of Dexia AM “in the interest of the various parties concerned, particularly its clients and team members.” Discussions will begin again “as soon as possible” with other partners who have expressed a marked interest for the acquisition of the asset management affiliate.